:* For GeForce2 MX, GeForce3 and GeForce4 series cards [NV11 and NV17-NV28], install {{AUR|nvidia-96xx}} package, available in the [[Arch User Repository]].

+

:* For GeForce 2/3/4 MX/Ti series cards [NV11 and NV17-NV28], install {{AUR|nvidia-96xx}} package, available in the [[Arch User Repository]].

:The ''nvidia{,-173xx,-96xx}-utils'' package is a dependency and will be pulled in automatically. It may conflict with the ''libgl'' package; this is normal. If pacman asks to remove ''libgl'' and fails due to unsatisfied dependencies, remove it with {{ic|pacman -Rdd libgl}}.

:The ''nvidia{,-173xx,-96xx}-utils'' package is a dependency and will be pulled in automatically. It may conflict with the ''libgl'' package; this is normal. If pacman asks to remove ''libgl'' and fails due to unsatisfied dependencies, remove it with {{ic|pacman -Rdd libgl}}.

Note: For the very latest GPU models, it may be required to install nvidia-betaAUR from the AUR, since the stable drivers may not support the newly introduced features. Try the stable ones first (see bellow).

The nvidia{,-173xx,-96xx}-utils package is a dependency and will be pulled in automatically. It may conflict with the libgl package; this is normal. If pacman asks to remove libgl and fails due to unsatisfied dependencies, remove it with pacman -Rdd libgl.

As a standard user, make a temporary directory for creating the new package:

$ mkdir -p ~/abs

Make a copy of the nvidia package directory:

$ cp -r /var/abs/extra/nvidia/ ~/abs/

Go into the temporary nvidia build directory:

$ cd ~/abs/nvidia

It is required to edit the files nvidia.install and PKGBUILD file so that they contain the right kernel version variables.

While running the custom kernel, get the appropriate kernel and local version names:

$ uname -r

In nvidia.install, replace the EXTRAMODULES='extramodules-3.4-ARCH' variable with the custom kernel version, such as EXTRAMODULES='extramodules-3.4.4' or EXTRAMODULES='extramodules-3.4.4-custom' depending on what the kernel's version is and the local version's text/numbers. Do this for all instances of the version number within this file.

In PKGBUILD, change the _extramodules=extramodules-3.4-ARCH variable to match the appropriate version, as above.

If there are more than one kernels in the system installed in parallel (such as a custom kernel alongside the default -ARCH kernel), change the pkgname=nvidia variable in the PKGBUILD to a unique identifier, such as nvidia-344 or nvidia-custom. This will allow both kernels to use the nvidia module, since the custom nvidia module has a different package name and will not overwrite the original. You will also need to comment the line in package() that blacklists the nvidia module in /usr/lib/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf (no need to do it again).

Then do:

$ makepkg -ci

The -c operand tells makepkg to clean left over files after building the package, whereas -i specifies that makepkg should automatically run pacman to install the resulting package.

Configuring

It is possible that after installing the driver it may not be needed to create an Xorg server configuration file. You can run a test to see if the Xorg server will function correctly without a configuration file. However, it may be required to create a /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file in order to adjust various settings. This configuration can be generated by the NVIDIA Xorg configuration tool, or it can be created manually. If created manually, it can be a minimal configuration (in the sense that it will only pass the basic options to the Xorg server), or it can include a number of settings that can bypass Xorg's auto-discovered or pre-configured options.

Multiple monitors

To activate dual screen support, you just need to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf file which you made before.

Per each physical monitor, add one Monitor, Device, and Screen Section entry, and then a ServerLayout section to manage it. Be advised that when Xinerama is enabled, the NVIDIA proprietary driver automatically disables compositing. If you desire compositing, you should comment out the Xinerama line in "ServerLayout" and use TwinView (see below) instead.

TwinView

You want only one big screen instead of two. Set the TwinView argument to 1. This option should be used instead of Xinerama (see above), if you desire compositing.

Option "TwinView" "1"

TwinView only works on a per card basis: If you have multiple cards (and no SLI?), you'll have to use xinerama or zaphod mode (multiple X screens). You can combine TwinView with zaphod mode, ending up, for example, with two X screens covering two monitors each. Most window managers fail miserably in zaphod mode. The shining exception is Awesome. KDE almost works.

Automatic configuration

The NVIDIA package provides Twinview. This tool will help by automatically configuring all the monitors connected to your video card. This only works for multiple monitors on a single card.
To configure Xorg Server with Twinview run:

# nvidia-xconfig --twinview

Manual CLI configuration with xrandr

If the latest solutions doesn't works for you, you can use the autostart trick of your window manager to run a xrandr command like this one :

xrandr --output DVI-I-0 --auto --primary --left-of DVI-I-1

or

xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --pos 1440x0 --mode 1440x900 --rate 75.0

When:

--output is used to indicate to which "monitor" set the options.

DVI-I-1 is the name of the second monitor.

--pos is the position of the second monitor respect to the first.

--mode is the resolution of the second monitor.

--rate is the Hz refresh rate.

You must adapt the xrandr options with the help of the output of the command xrandr run alone in a terminal.

Using NVIDIA Settings

You can also use the nvidia-settings tool provided by nvidia-utils. With this method, you will use the proprietary software NVIDIA provides with their drivers. Simply run nvidia-settings as root, then configure as you wish, and then save the configuration to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf.

ConnectedMonitor

If the driver doesn't properly detect a second monitor, you can force it to do so with ConnectedMonitor.

Enabling desktop composition

As of NVIDIA driver version 180.44, support for GLX with the Damage and Composite X extensions is enabled by default. Refer to Composite for detailed instructions.

Disabling the logo on startup

Add the "NoLogo" option under section Device:

Option "NoLogo" "1"

Enabling hardware acceleration

Note: RenderAccel is enabled by default since drivers version 97.46.xx

Add the "RenderAccel" option under section Device:

Option "RenderAccel" "1"

Overriding monitor detection

The "ConnectedMonitor" option under section Device allows to override monitor detection when X server starts, which may save a significant amount of time at start up. The available options are: "CRT" for analog connections, "DFP" for digital monitors and "TV" for televisions.

The following statement forces the NVIDIA driver to bypass startup checks and recognize the monitor as DFP:

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"

Note: Use "CRT" for all analog 15 pin VGA connections, even if the display is a flat panel. "DFP" is intended for DVI digital connections only.

Enabling triple buffering

Enable the use of triple buffering by adding the "TripleBuffer" Option under section Device:

Option "TripleBuffer" "1"

Use this option if the graphics card has plenty of ram (equal or greater than 128MB). The setting only takes effect when syncing to vblank is enabled, one of the options featured in nvidia-settings.

Note: This option may introduce full-screen tearing and reduce performance. As of the R300 drivers, vblank is enabled by default.

Using OS-level events

Taken from the NVIDIA driver's README file: "[...] Use OS-level events to efficiently notify X when a client has performed direct rendering to a window that needs to be composited." It may help improving performance, but it is currently incompatible with SLI and Multi-GPU modes.

Add under section Device:

Option "DamageEvents" "1"

Note: This option is enabled by default in newer driver versions.

Enabling power saving

Add under section Monitor:

Option "DPMS" "1"

Enabling Brightness Control

Add under section Device:

Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"

Enabling SLI

Warning: As of May 7, 2011, you may experience sluggish video performance in GNOME 3 after enabling SLI.

Taken from the NVIDIA driver's README appendix: This option controls the configuration of SLI rendering in supported configurations. A "supported configuration" is a computer equipped with an SLI-Certified Motherboard and 2 or 3 SLI-Certified GeForce GPUs. See NVIDIA's SLI Zone for more information.

Letting the GPU set its own performance level based on temperature

Disable vblank interrupts (for laptops)

When running the interrupt detection utility powertop, it can be observed that the Nvidia driver will generate an interrupt for every vblank. To disable, place in the Device section:

Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "1"

This will reduce interrupts to about one or two per second.

Enabling overclocking

Warning: Please note that overclocking may damage hardware and that no responsibility may be placed on the authors of this page due to any damage to any information technology equipment from operating products out of specifications set by the manufacturer.

To enable GPU and memory overclocking, place the following line in the Device section:

Option "Coolbits" "1"

This will enable on-the-fly overclocking within an X session by running:

$ nvidia-settings

Note: GTX 4xx/5xx series Fermi cores cannot currently be overclocked using
the Coolbits method. The alternative is to edit and reflash the GPU BIOS either under DOS (preferred), or within a Win32 environment by way of nvflash and NiBiTor 6.0. The advantage of BIOS flashing is that not only can voltage limits be raised, but stability is generally improved over software overclocking methods such as Coolbits.

Setting static 2D/3D clocks

Set the following string in the Device section to enable PowerMizer at its maximum performance level:

Option "RegistryDwords" "PerfLevelSrc=0x2222"

Set one of the following two strings in the Device section to enable manual GPU fan control within nvidia-settings:

Option "Coolbits" "4"

Option "Coolbits" "5"

Enable screen rotation through XRandR

Note: this section is outdated starting with 302.17, nVidia now supports randr 1.2 and 1.3

Place the following line in the Device section:

Option "RandRRotation" "True"

After restarting Xorg:

$ xrandr -o left

The Screen should be rotated. To restore:

$ xrandr -o normal

Note: Editing xorg.conf may be unnecessary since screen rotation should be enabled by default, ideally by using the respective DE tools, such as SystemSettings in KDE.

Using TV-out

X with a TV (DFP) as the only display

The X server falls back to CRT-0 if no monitor is automatically detected. This can be a problem when using a DVI connected TV as the main display, and X is started while the TV is turned off or otherwise disconnected.

To force nvidia to use DFP, store a copy of the EDID somewhere in the filesystem so that X can parse the file instead of reading EDID from the TV/DFP.

To acquire the EDID, start nvidia-settings. It will show some information in tree format, ignore the rest of the settings for now and select the GPU (the corresponding entry should be titled "GPU-0" or similar), click the DFP section (again, DFP-0 or similar), click on the Acquire Edid Button and store it somewhere, for example, /etc/X11/dfp0.edid.

The ConnectedMonitor option forces the driver to recognize the DFP as if it were connected. The CustomEDID provides EDID data for the device, meaning that it will start up just as if the TV/DFP was connected during X the process.

This way, one can automatically start a display manager at boot time and still have a working and properly configured X screen by the time the TV gets powered on.

Check the power state

NVIDIA X.org driver can detect power source. To see the current state check 'GPUPowerSource' read-only parameter (0 - AC, 1 - battery):

$ nvidia-settings -q GPUPowerSource -t
1

For it to be able to detect this you need to have acpid installed. Make sure to include acpid on DAEMONS array in rc.conf or this warning will appear on system log:

ACPI: failed to connect to the ACPI event daemon; the daemon
may not be running or the "AcpidSocketPath" X
configuration option may not be set correctly. When the
ACPI event daemon is available, the NVIDIA X driver will
try to use it to receive ACPI event notifications. For
details, please see the "ConnectToAcpid" and
"AcpidSocketPath" X configuration options in Appendix B: X
Config Options in the README.

Displaying GPU temperature in the shell

Method 1 - nvidia-settings

Note: This method requires that you are using X. Use Method 2 or Method 3 if you are not. Also note that Method 3 currently does not not work with newer nvidia cards such as the G210/220 as well as embedded GPUs such as the Zotac IONITX's 8800GS.

To display the GPU temp in the shell, use nvidia-settings as follows:

$ nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp

This will output something similar to the following:

Attribute 'GPUCoreTemp' (hostname:0.0): 41.
'GPUCoreTemp' is an integer attribute.
'GPUCoreTemp' is a read-only attribute.
'GPUCoreTemp' can use the following target types: X Screen, GPU.

The GPU temps of this board is 41 C.

In order to get just the temperature for use in utils such as rrdtool or conky, among others:

$ nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp -t
41

Method 2 - nvidia-smi

Use nvidia-smi which can read temps directly from the GPU without the need to use X at all. This is important for a small group of users who do not have X running on their boxes, perhaps because the box is headless running server apps.
To display the GPU temp in the shell, use nvidia-smi as follows:

Method 3 - nvclock

There can be significant differences between the temperatures reported by nvclock and nvidia-settings/nv-control. According to this post by the author (thunderbird) of nvclock, the nvclock values should be more accurate.

Set Fan Speed at Login

You can adjust the fan speed on your graphics card with nvidia-settings's console interface. First ensure that your Xorg configuration sets the Coolbits option to 4 or 5 in your Device section to enable fan control.

Option "Coolbits" "4"

Note: GTX 4xx/5xx series cards cannot currently set fan speeds at login using this method. This method only allows for the setting of fan speeds within the current X session by way of nvidia-settings.

Place the following line in your ~/.xinitrc file to adjust the fan when you launch Xorg. Replace <n> with the fan speed percentage you want to set.

If you use a login manager such as GDM or KDM, you can create a desktop entry file to process this setting. Create ~/.config/autostart/nvidia-fan-speed.desktop and place this text inside it. Again, change <n> to the speed percentage you want.

Adjust the scripts accordingly, if using other NVIDIA drivers (e.g. nvidia-173xx).

If using xorg-server older than 1.10.2, uncomment the lines that copy and remove {10-monitor,20-nouveau}.conf. Since 1.10.2 X loads nouveau automatically.

Troubleshooting

Bad performance, e.g. slow repaints when switching tabs in Chrome

On some machines, recent nvidia drivers introduce a bug(?) that causes X11 to redraw pixmaps really slow. Switching tabs in Chrome/Chromium (while having more than 2 tabs opened) takes 1-2 seconds, instead of a few milliseconds.

It seems that setting the variable InitialPixmapPlacement to 0 solves that problem, although (like described some paragraphs above) InitialPixmapPlacement=2 should actually be the faster method.

The variable can be (temporarily) set with the command

nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=0

To make this permanent, this call can be placed in a startup script.

Gaming using Twinview

In case you want to play fullscreen games when using Twinview, you will notice that games recognize the two screens as being one big screen. While this is technically correct (the virtual X screen really is the size of your screens combined), you probably do not want to play on both screens at the same time.

To correct this behavior for SDL, try:

export SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_HEAD=1

For OpenGL, add the appropiate Metamodes to your xorg.conf in section Device and restart X:

Vertical sync using TwinView

If you're using TwinView and vertical sync (the "Sync to VBlank" option in nvidia-settings), you will notice that only one screen is being properly synced, unless you have two identical monitors. Although nvidia-settings does offer an option to change which screen is being synced (the "Sync to this display device" option), this does not always work. A solution is to add the following environment variables at startup:

You can change DFP-0 with your preferred screen (DFP-0 is the DVI port and CRT-0 is the VGA port).

Old Xorg Settings

If upgrading from an old installation, please remove old /usr/X11R6/ paths as it can cause trouble during installation.

Corrupted screen: "Six screens" issue

For some users using Geforce GT 100M's, the screen turns out corrupted after X starts; divided into 6 sections with a resolution limited to 640x480.
The same problem has been recently reported with Quadro 2000 and hi-res displays.

To solve this problem, enable the Validation Mode NoTotalSizeCheck in section Device:

This error can occur for several different reasons, and the most common solution given for this error is to check for group/file permissions, which in almost every case is not the issue. The NVIDIA documentation does not talk in detail on what you should
do to correct this problem but there are a few things that have worked for some people. The problem can be a IRQ conflict with another device or bad routing by either the kernel or your BIOS.

First thing to try is to remove other video devices such as video capture cards and see if the problem goes away. If there are too many video processors on the same system it can lead into the kernel being unable to start them because of memory allocation problems with the video controller. In particular on systems with low video memory this can occur even if there is only one video processor. In such case you should find out the amount of your system's video memory (e.g. with lspci -v) and pass allocation parameters to the kernel, e.g.:

vmalloc=64M
or
vmalloc=256M

If running a 64bit kernel, a driver defect can cause the nvidia module to fail initializing when IOMMU is on. Turning it off in the BIOS has been confirmed to work for some users. [2][3]

Another thing to try is to change your BIOS IRQ routing from Operating system controlled to BIOS controlled or the other way around. The first one can be passed as a kernel parameter:

PCI=biosirq

The noacpi kernel parameter has also been suggested as a solution but since it disables ACPI completely it should be used with caution. Some hardware are easily damaged by overheating.

Note: The kernel parameters can be passed either through the kernel command line or the bootloader configuration file. See your bootloader Wiki page for more information.

'/dev/nvidiactl' errors

Trying to start an opengl application might result in errors such as:

Error: Could not open /dev/nvidiactl because the permissions are too
restrictive. Please see the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
section of /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README
for steps to correct.

Solve by adding the appropiate user to the video group and relogin:

# gpasswd -a username video

32 bit applications do not start

Under 64 bit systems, installing lib32-nvidia-utils that corresponds to the same version installed for the 64 bit driver fixes the issue.

Errors after updating the kernel

If a custom build of NVIDIA's module is used instead of the package from [extra], a recompile is required every time the kernel is updated. Rebooting is generally recommended after updating kernel and graphic drivers.

Crashing in general

Try disabling RenderAccel in xorg.conf.

If Xorg outputs an error about "conflicting memory type" or "failed to allocate primary buffer: out of memory", add nopat at the end of the kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst.

If the NVIDIA compiler complains about different versions of GCC between the current one and the one used for compiling the kernel, add in /etc/profile:

export IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH=1

If Xorg is crashing with a "Signal 11" while using nvidia-96xx drivers, try disabling PAT. Pass the argument nopat to the kernel line in menu.lst.

More information about troubleshooting the driver can be found in the NVIDIA forums.

Bad performance after installing a new driver version

If FPS have dropped in comparison with older drivers, first check if direct rendering is turned on:

$ glxinfo | grep direct

If the command prints:

direct rendering: No

then that could be an indication for the sudden FPS drop.

A possible solution could be to regress to the previously installed driver version and rebooting afterwards.

CPU spikes with 400 series cards

If you are experiencing intermittent CPU spikes with a 400 series card, it may be caused by PowerMizer constantly changing the GPU's clock frequency. Switching PowerMizer's setting from Adaptive to Performance, add the following to the Device section of your Xorg configuration:

Laptops: X hangs on login/out, worked around with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace

If while using the legacy NVIDIA drivers Xorg hangs on login and logout (particularly with an odd screen split into two black and white/gray pieces), but logging in is still possible via Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (or whatever the new "kill X" keybind is), try adding this in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf:

options nvidia NVreg_Mobile=1

One user had luck with this instead, but it makes performance drop significantly for others:

Refresh rate not detected properly by XRandR dependant utilities

The XRandR X extension is not presently aware of multiple display devices on a single X screen; it only sees the MetaMode bounding box, which may contain one or more actual modes. This means that if multiple MetaModes have the same bounding box, XRandR will not be able to distinguish between them.

In order to support DynamicTwinView, the NVIDIA driver must make each MetaMode appear to be unique to XRandR. Presently, the NVIDIA driver accomplishes this by using the refresh rate as a unique identifier.

Use nvidia-settings -q RefreshRate to query the actual refresh rate on each display device.

The XRandR extension is currently being redesigned by the X.Org community, so the refresh rate workaround may be removed at some point in the future.

This workaround can also be disabled by setting the DynamicTwinView X configuration option to false, which will disable NV-CONTROL support for manipulating MetaModes, but will cause the XRandR and XF86VidMode visible refresh rate to be accurate.

No screens found on a laptop / NVIDIA Optimus

On a laptop, if the NVIDIA driver cannot find any screens, you may have an NVIDIA Optimus setup : an Intel chipset connected to the screen and the video outputs, and a NVIDIA card that does all the hard work and writes to the chipset's video memory.

NVIDIA has announced plans to support Optimus in their Linux drivers at some point in the future.

You need to install the Intel driver to handle the screens, then if you want 3D software you should run them through Bumblebee to tell them to use the NVIDIA card.

Possible Workaround

On my Lenovo W520 with a Quadro 1000M and Nvidia Optimus, I entered the BIOS and changed my default graphics setting from 'Optimus' to 'Discrete' and the pacman Nvidia drivers(295.20-1 at time of writing) recognized the screens.

Black Bars while watching full screen flash videos with twinview

Backlight is not turning off in some occasions

By default, DPMS should turn off backlight with the timeouts set or by running xset. However, probably due to a bug in the proprietary Nvidia drivers the result is a blank screen with no powersaving whatsoever. To workaround it, until the bug has been fixed you can use the vbetool as root.

Turn off your screen on demand and then by pressing a random key backlight turns on again:

vbetool dpms off && read -n1; vbetool dpms on

Alternatively, xrandr is able to disable and re-enable monitor outputs without requiring root.

xrandr --output DP-1 --off; read -n1; xrandr --output DP-1 --auto

Blue tint on videos with Flash

An issue with flashplugin versions 11.2.202.228-1 and 11.2.202.233-1 causes it to send the U/V panes in the incorrect order resulting in a blue tint on certain videos. There are a few potential fixes for this bug:

Right click on a video, select 'Settings...' and untick 'Enable hardware acceleration'. Reload the page for it to take affect. Note that this disables GPU acceleration.

Downgrade Flash to version 11.1.102.63-1 at most

Use Google Chrome with the new Pepper API.

Try one of the few Flash alternatives.

The merits of each are discussed in this thread. To summarize: if you want all flash sites (youtube, vimeo, etc) to work properly in non-Chrome browsers, without feature regressions (such as losing hardware acceleration), without crashes/instability (enabling hardware decoding), without security concerns (multiple CVEs against older flash versions) and without breaking the vdpau tracing library from its intended purpose, the LEAST objectionable is to install libvdpau-git-flashpatchAUR.

Bleeding overlay with Flash

This bug is due to the incorrect colour key being used by the flashplugin version 11.2.202.228-1 and causes the flash content to "leak" into other pages or solid black backgrounds. To avoid this issue simply export VDPAU_NVIDIA_NO_OVERLAY=1 within either your shell profile (E.g. ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zprofile) or ~/.xinitrc

Full system freeze using flash

If you experience occasional full system freezes (only the mouse is moving) using flashplugin
and get